About Boo Saville

Boo Saville’s paintings and drawings engage the macabre through an exquisitely rendered cast of symbols that reference life, death, and the human body. Employing the language of memento mori—reminders of mortality explored by artists ranging from Goya to Francis Bacon—Saville depicts skulls, taxidermy, and busts in varying states of decay. Explaining her intent to investigate the aesthetics and emotions surrounding mortality, Saville has said, “My work is a response to the unknown aspects of being human and how we manage the feelings embodied in this. . . . The corpse is used all over the world as a symbol of good and bad luck, the skull is iconic. I am interested in death and its relationship to us as a totemic and uniting function as much as a tool to scare or control.”

British, b. 1980, Norwich, United Kingdom, based in London, United Kingdom